SOUTH BAY CORRUPTION: A DEPRESSING SPECTACLE

The public corruption scandal in South Bay school districts expanded sharply Monday with the announcement that 15 former and current officials with the Sweetwater Union High School District, the Southwestern Community College District and the San Ysidro School District now face 232 felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly accepting and soliciting bribes related to multimillion-dollar construction contracts.

The details are depressingly similar in many of the supporting documents: In return for expensive gifts and meals, school board members and top district officials steered contracts to their alleged bribers while failing to note the largesse on mandatory disclosure forms.

Those charged are innocent until proven guilty. But it is impossible to look at this years-long pattern of behavior and not have a very low opinion of it. South Bay residents deserve far better.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has called this scandal perhaps the worst case of public corruption uncovered during her tenure as DA. But her unsuccessful prosecution of then-Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castaneda in 2008, along with this case, have prompted criticisms of selective prosecution. The stakes in this case are high, not just for the South Bay 15, but for Dumanis as well.